This invention relates generally to a plunger mechanism in a glass container forming machine and more particularly pertains to a saddle plate structure for supporting the plunger mechanism and port blocks repositionably mounted on the upper surface of the saddle plate for providing a pressurized fluid flow to the cylinder.
It is common industrial practice to utilize a vertically-oriented cylinder having a reciprocally-driven piston for pressing a plunger upwardly into a molten glass gob as one step in the process of forming a glass container. It is also common practice to support one or more such cylinders on a saddle plate in a glass container forming machine.
It has become common practice to change the size and/or the number of cylinders utilized in such a machine to thereby produce different styles of glass containers and the number of containers being produced by the machine. Commonly, to accomplish a cylinder change, it is necessary to change the saddle plate on which cylinders are supported, utilizing a different saddle plate, the design of which is consistent with the provision of one or a plurality of cylinders. Such machine changeover requires considerable down-time because hoses for directing pressurized fluid flow through conduits formed in the saddle plate must be first disconnected then properly reconnected to the replacement saddle plate. Saddle plates provided with such internal conduits and means for hose or pipe connections to laterally-facing ports D on the saddle plate are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,190,188; 4,272,273; and 3,314,775.